Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America - Hardcover

Lobdell, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061626813 ISBN 13: 9780061626814

Publisher: Collins, 2009

Synopsis

William Lobdell's journey of faith—and doubt—may be the most compelling spiritual memoir of our time. Lobdell became a born-again Christian in his late 20s when personal problems—including a failed marriage—drove him to his knees in prayer. As a newly minted evangelical, Lobdell—a veteran journalist—noticed that religion wasn't covered well in the mainstream media, and he prayed for the Lord to put him on the religion beat at a major newspaper. In 1998, his prayers were answered when the Los Angeles Times asked him to write about faith.

Yet what happened over the next eight years was a roller-coaster of inspiration, confusion, doubt, and soul-searching as his reporting and experiences slowly chipped away at his faith. While reporting on hundreds of stories, he witnessed a disturbing gap between the tenets of various religions and the behaviors of the faithful and their leaders. He investigated religious institutions that acted less ethically than corrupt Wall St. firms. He found few differences between the morals of Christians and atheists. As this evidence piled up, he started to fear that God didn't exist. He explored every doubt, every question—until, finally, his faith collapsed. After the paper agreed to reassign him, he wrote a personal essay in the summer of 2007 that became an international sensation for its honest exploration of doubt.

Losing My Religion is a book about life's deepest questions that speaks to everyone: Lobdell understands the longings and satisfactions of the faithful, as well as the unrelenting power of doubt. How he faced that power, and wrestled with it, is must reading for people of faith and nonbelievers alike.

About this title

Synopsis:

When editors at the "Los Angeles Times" assigned Lobdell to the religion beat, he believed God had answered his prayers. As a serious Christian, he wanted to report objectively and respectfully about how belief shapes people's lives. But something very different happened. Slowly his reporting drifted to the paradoxes of religion - how can Mormons believe their own scripture? How can Christians?And soon to the underbelly of religion: why do so many churches become corrupt? Why does faith drive people to refuse to accept criticism or questions, and even to demonize apostates? Each story chipped away at his faith. Eight years later, after intense encounters with believers of all sizes and shapes, he realized that his faith in God was gone. "Losing My Religion" takes readers on a profound journey from agnosticism, to a born-again conversion, to a roller-coaster of extremes of the spirit - and ultimately to a new, deeply satisfying form of contentment without God. This courageous memoir speaks both to the doubts of believers and the yearnings of doubters.

About the Author:

William Lobdell is on the visiting faculty at the University of California, Irvine.

About this edition

• Publisher: Collins
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0061626813
• ISBN 13: 9780061626814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304